Channa kelaartii, a valid species of dwarf snakehead from Sri Lanka and southern peninsular India (Teleostei: Channidae)

Abstract

<p>The dwarf snakehead <i>Channa gachua</i> (Hamilton, 1822) (type locality Bengal) has been reported from a vast range, from Iran to Taiwan, and northern India to Sri Lanka. Here, adopting an integrative taxonomic approach, we show that the Sri Lankan snakehead previously referred to as <i>C.gachua</i> is in fact a distinct species, for which the name <i>C.kelaartii</i> (Günther, 1861) is available. Widely distributed in streams and ponds throughout Sri Lanka's lowlands, and also recorded here from the east-flowing drainages of southern peninsular India, <i>C.kelaartii</i> is distinguished from all the other species of the <i>C.gachua</i> species group by the combination of head shape, dorsal- and anal-fin ray counts, scale counts, the presence of pelvic fins, and live adult coloration. Further, <i>C.kelaartii</i> is genetically distinct from topotypical <i>C.gachua</i> by an uncorrected pairwise distance of 7.9–8.8 % for the mitochondrial cytochrome <i>c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1)</i> gene.</p>